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When English Isn't the Best Teacher: Source Language Effects in Cross-Lingual In-Context Learning

arXiv 2606.18033 ↗First posted 16 Jun 2026cs.CL cs.AIcited by 0

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Abstract (arXiv)

Cross-lingual transfer in multilingual NLP has been widely explored in supervised fine-tuning contexts, where factors like data availability and linguistic similarity largely determine transfer quality. As the field shifts toward few-shot In-Context Learning (ICL), it is often presumed that insights from fine-tuning carry over unchanged. Yet this assumption has not been rigorously evaluated, leaving open the question of how to choose source languages for cross-lingual ICL. We conduct a broad empirical study of cross-lingual transfer in ICL spanning seven tasks, six models, and a typologically diverse set of languages. We further analyze language confusion, a key obstacle for generative tasks in cross-lingual ICL. Our results show that conventional fine-tuning-based expectations do not consistently apply in the ICL regime and point to alternative heuristics for selecting source languages effectively.

Key facts. No citing papers in the map yet (data through 14 Oct 2026). Builds on 23 of its 33 references that are in the map. First posted on arXiv 16 Jun 2026.

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References · 23

  1. 2020Language Models are Few-Shot Learnerscited by 32,419
  2. 2019Similarity of Neural Network Representations Revisitedcited by 1,755
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  6. 2022Language Models are Multilingual Chain-of-Thought Reasonerscited by 530
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  10. 2024Global MMLU: Understanding and Addressing Cultural and Linguistic Biases in Multilingual Evaluationcited by 191
  11. 2019Cross-Lingual Ability of Multilingual BERT: An Empirical Studycited by 182
  12. 2023SIB-200: A Simple, Inclusive, and Big Evaluation Dataset for Topic Classification in 200+ Languages and Dialectscited by 152
11 more
  1. 2024Understanding and Mitigating Language Confusion in LLMscited by 75
  2. 2023Multilingual LLMs are Better Cross-lingual In-context Learners with Alignmentcited by 71
  3. 2024LLMs Are Few-Shot In-Context Low-Resource Language Learnerscited by 68
  4. 2021First Align, then Predict: Understanding the Cross-Lingual Ability of Multilingual BERTcited by 65
  5. 2023Towards a Common Understanding of Contributing Factors for Cross-Lingual Transfer in Multilingual Language Models: A Reviewcited by 50
  6. 2022A Balanced Data Approach for Evaluating Cross-Lingual Transfer: Mapping the Linguistic Blood Bankcited by 29
  7. 2024The Impact of Demonstrations on Multilingual In-Context Learning: A Multidimensional Analysiscited by 13
  8. 2023Cross-lingual QA: A Key to Unlocking In-context Cross-lingual Performancecited by 5
  9. 2024XAMPLER: Learning to Retrieve Cross-Lingual In-Context Examplescited by 5
  10. 2025Donors and Recipients: On Asymmetric Transfer Across Tasks and Languages with Parameter-Efficient Fine-Tuningcited by 4
  11. 2025Blessing of Multilinguality: A Systematic Analysis of Multilingual In-Context Learningcited by 3

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